The six-ton satellite circles the Earth on a tilted orbit, and as the planet turns each day, different locations pass underneath. The satellite’s orbit on Friday afternoon will not take it over any part of North America, but by Saturday, parts of the United States will again be in its path. […] At least 26 pieces, the largest 330 pounds, are expected to survive the plunge and land along a path 500 miles long.

Not to worry, as it’s happened before:

NASA satellites also receive considerably more attention when they come back to Earth than other debris of similar size. About one satellite five metric tons or larger re-enters the atmosphere every year.

For example, on a test flight of its Falcon 9 rocket in June 2010, the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation placed the second stage and a prototype capsule into orbit. That object, heavier than the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, came crashing back to Earth two and a half weeks later without causing a media ripple.

Say what you want about the man, but he resurrected the company from being a laughing-stock in the industry, to one of the largest and most successful companies in the world. Here is one of the more honest assessments of Jobs as I’ve seen so far:

Steve Jobs could be arrogant and unpleasant, a brutal man a sane person would not want to work for. But the products he created will be his monuments. And so will the memory of how he created those products.

Unlike those folks in Washington who dare not offend their favored constituencies—Republicans unwilling to raise taxes, Tea Party members who praise James Madison’s belief in small government but not his belief in checks and balances and compromise, Congressional Democrats unwilling to offend senior citizens or labor, a President unwilling to stick his neck out to endorse the work of the bipartisan budget-balancing commission he appointed—Steve Jobs has been a true leader.

Like Edison, he’s been an inventor and a man who has changed our lives.

On a rainy weekend last year, Patrick Priebe, a German lab technician and Iron Man fanatic who rewatches the film and its sequel every week, decided to build a compact yet powerful laser inspired by Tony Stark’s repulsor-beam weapon. In the U.S., the maximum strength for consumer laser pointers is typically five milliwatts; Priebe’s handheld laser is 1,000 milliwatts, enough to instantly blind anyone not wearing special safety glasses.